Nadler: ‘Our Goal Is to Hold the Admin. Accountable’ for Obstruction, Abuse, and Corruption

IAN HANCHETT4 Mar 2019

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) stated that the committee’s “goal is to hold the administration accountable for the obstruction of justice, the abuse of power, and the corruption.” He added that the committee isn’t trying to “establish anything in particular,” and is not holding “a pre-impeachment hearing.”

Nadler said, “Well, our goal is to hold the administration accountable for the obstruction of justice, the abuse of power, and the corruption. Our goal is to vindicate the rule of law, to protect the rule of law in this country. … And we have to find out what’s been going on, and we have to lay out a case to the American people and reveal it.”

He added, “I don’t mean a case for — to establish anything in particular, but what’s been going on, what have they been doing, and how can we fix it? How do we protect the rule of law? That’s the real question. How do we protect the judiciary against the incessant attacks? How do we protect the press against the incessant attacks? How do we protect the role of government so that it is not used for personal enrichment in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution?”

Nadler later stated that there is “certainly a lot of evidence” that Trump has obstructed justice, “but that’s exactly the kind of thing we have to look into.”

Nadler added, “Personally, I think he has, but we have to look and see.”

He further said that obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense.

Nadler added that there are limits to personal opinions, and “If we’re going to do anything, you have to have proof.”

Host Erin Burnett then asked, “So, that’s what this is about, you don’t yet have proof?”

Nadler responded, “It’s part of what this is about. And it’s not just the obstruction of justice in the — I mean, I think, in plain sight, all his interferences with the Mueller investigation, his — that everybody knows about, amount to obstruction of justice, but we have to go a lot further than that, and we have to — and look at other cases, too, and decide what we can do about it.”

Nadler further stated that he doesn’t feel any pressure to go to impeachment, adding, “this is not a pre-impeachment hearing. Our goal is not to decide whether there’s impeachment.”